“Neurotypical” is a term used by the autism community to describe what society refers to as “normal.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in 59 children, and one in 34 boys, are on the autism spectrum—in other words, neuroatypical. That’s 3 percent of the male population. If you add ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—and dyslexia, roughly one out of four people are not “neurotypicals.”

In NeuroTribes, Steve Silberman chronicles the history of such non-neurotypical conditions

including autism, which was described by the Viennese doctor Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner in Baltimore in the 1930s and 1940s. Asperger worked in Nazi-occupied Vienna, which was actively euthanizing institutionalized children, and he defined a broad spectrum of children who were socially awkward. Others had extraordinary abilities and a “fascination with rules, laws and schedules,” to use Silberman’s words.

Kanner, on the other hand, described children who were more disabled. Kanner’s suggestion that the condition was activated by bad parenting made autism a source of stigma for parents and led to decades of work attempting to “cure” autism rather than developing ways for families, the educational system, and society to adapt to it.

i think that people w autism are born outside the regime of civilization. i think that as a result of all the killings in the world and the selfish planet wrecking .. a deep sense of crisis exists.. autism has somehow arisen out of this.. we are like travelers from the distant past.. and if , by our being here, we could help the people of the world remember what truly matters for the earth that would give us a quiet pleasure.

Our schools in particular have failed such neurodiverse students, *in part because they’ve been designed to prepare our children for typical jobs in a mass-production-based white- and blue-collar environment created by the Industrial Revolution.

I think that even the broad notion of education may be outdated, and *we need a completely new approach to empower learning: We need to revamp our notion of “education” and shake loose the ordered and linear metrics of the society of the past, when we were focused on scale and the mass production of stuff. Accepting and respecting neurodiversity is the key to surviving the transformation driven by the internet and AI, which is shattering the Newtonian predictability of the past and replacing it with a Heisenbergian world of complexity and uncertainty.

Owen’s story tells us how autism can manifest in different ways and how, if caregivers can adapt rather than force kids to “be normal,” many autistic children survive and thrive. Our institutions, however, are poorly designed to deliver individualized, adaptive programs to educate such kids

perhaps more important.. what they (everyone) has to help educate us ..again ie: higashida autism law

In addition to schools poorly designed for non-neurotypicals, our society traditionally has had scant tolerance or compassion for anyone lacking social skills or perceived as not “normal.”..t

i think that people w autism are born outside the regime of civilization. i think that as a result of all the killings in the world and the selfish planet wrecking .. a deep sense of crisis exists.. autism has somehow arisen out of this.. we are like travelers from the distant past.. and if , by our being here, we could help the people of the world remember what truly matters for the earth that would give us a quiet pleasure.

Temple Grandin, the animal welfare advocate who is herself somewhere on the spectrum, contends that Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Mozart, and Nikola Tesla would have been diagnosed on the “autistic spectrum” if they were alive today. She also believes that autism has long contributed to human development and that “without autism traits we might still be living in caves.” She is a prominent spokesperson for the neurodiversity movement, which argues that neurological differences must be respected in the same way that diversity of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation is.

Ben Draper, who runs the Macomber Center for Self Directed Learning, says that while the center is designed for all types of children, kids whose parents identify them as on the autism spectrum often thrive at the center when they’ve had difficulty in conventional schools. Ben is part of the so-called unschooling movement, which believes that not only should learning be self-directed, in fact we shouldn’t even focus on guiding learning. Children will learn in the process of pursuing their passions, the reasoning goes, and so we just need to get out of their way, providing support as needed

indeed

Many, of course, argue that such an approach is much too unstructured and verges on irresponsibility. In retrospect, though, I feel I certainly would have thrived on “unschooling.” t

the problem isn’t that it’s unstructured.. it’s that not all of us are doing it.. and it needs to be all of us ie: meadows undisturbed ecosystem

In a recent paper, Ben and my colleague Andre Uhl, who first introduced me to unschooling, argue that it not only works for everyone, but that the current educational system, in addition to providing poor learning outcomes, impinges on the rights of children as individuals t

Not that anyone should generalize from my experience—one reader of my dissertation said that I’m so unusual, I should be considered a “human sub-species.” While I take that as a compliment, I think there are others like me..t.. who weren’t as lucky and ended up going through the traditional system and mostly suffering rather than flourishing.

that’s all of us.. and we can’t see it because we keep observing/researching ie: whales in sea world

We can also use modern technology for connected learning that supports diverse interests and abilities and is integrated into our lives and communities of interest.

true.. very thankful for that.. but today.. we can do better than that.. because/and.. it won’t really truly work until it’s all of us

Many mental health issues, I believe, are caused by trying to “fix” some type of neurodiversity or by simply being insensitive or inappropriate for the person. Many mental “illnesses” can be “cured” by providing the appropriate interface to learning, living, or interacting for that person focusing on the four Ps. ..t

reason i started path is i felt i had gotten lost.. from this vision of serving people

2 min – see this often in sv.. people get lost in the ego.. the conferences.. the travel.. at the end of the day the reason you’re doing this is because society has given you permission to serve this important need and.. it’s not about you

Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) tweeted at 7:03 AM – 23 Aug 2018 :
the scrutinity that follows a success causes too many great imaginative minds to start playing it safe. this increased reputational risk is society’s immune system at work, extinguishing the most likely sources of the next disruptive spark. much respect for those who defy it. (http://twitter.com/scottbelsky/status/1032614371686588416?s=17)

Dave Morin (born October 14, 1980) is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, and the CEO and co-founder of the social network Path. A former manager at Facebook, he co-created the Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect.

Morin is a member of the board of directors for the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), Eventbrite, and Dwell Media

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graduated from cu boulder in 2003

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In 2013, Morin and several technological innovators, creators, or business owners launched Fwd.us, a Silicon Valley-based 501(c)(4) lobbying group

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DAVE MORIN (@davemorin) tweeted at 4:44 PM – 4 Oct 2018 :
Inspired by almost every chapter in my dear friend @scottbelsky’s new book The Messy Middle. I’ve been writing so many notes in the margins it already feels like a timeless, essential book in my life. (http://twitter.com/davemorin/status/1047980865123303424?s=17)